The Health Department is banning CBD from New York restaurants

If you’ve gone to a certain type of bar or restaurant over the last few months, chances are you’ve encountered a CBD-laced food or beverage item on the menu. From CBD-infused cocktails and CBD desserts to CBD soups (yes, that’s a thing), the trend hit NYC hard and fast. Now, it may be disappearing just as quickly.

New York’s Health Department has ordered that restaurants in the city to stop serving CBD, which is short for cannabidiol—a compound found in the cannabis plant. The ingredient is thought to deliver many of the calming benefits of marijuana but without the “Are there aliens on my roof?” high.

“The Health Department takes seriously its responsibility to protect New Yorkers’ health,” a spokeswoman for the department said in an email to CNBC. “Until cannabidiol (CBD) is deemed safe as a food additive, the department is ordering restaurants not to offer products containing CBD.”

The crack down on CBD in the city began last month when the Health Department began telling restaurants that the supplement wasn’t approved as safe for consumers. It’s now prohibiting businesses from adding it to food and drink.

Eater reports that five restaurants have already been visited by the Health Department and we told to stop using CBD. The cannabidiol cupcake crackdown makes New York the first major American city to begin enforcement on the borderline-legal use of CBD. Starting July, restaurants that violate the ban could face fines as steep as $650.